Meals · Casseroles & bakes

Meatloaf

Name: Meatloaf
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 80 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 700 g 90% lean ground beef; 3/4 cup oatmeal; 1 egg egg; 1 onion yellow onions, grated; 2 carrots mature carrots, grated; 2 stalks celery, finely chopped; 3 cloves garlic, minced; 1/4 cup tomato paste; 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce; 1 tsp dried thyme; 1 1/4 tsp salt; 1 tsp black pepper; 3 tbsp ketchup; 1 tsp yellow mustard

The second most-searched recipe in America, and a better dish than its reputation suggests: lean beef bulked out with oats and grated vegetables, which is what keeps it moist and also what makes it score far higher than people expect.

Time: 80 min (20 prep + 60 cook)
Servings: 6
Per serving: 315 kcal
Protein: 27 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

700 g 90% lean ground beef700 g
3/4 cup oatmeal80 g
1 egg egg50 g
1 onion yellow onions, grated150 g
2 carrots mature carrots, grated120 g
2 stalks celery, finely chopped80 g
3 cloves garlic, minced9 g
1/4 cup tomato paste60 g
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce15 g
1 tsp dried thyme2 g
1 1/4 tsp salt6 g
1 tsp black pepper2 g

Glaze

3 tbsp ketchup45 g
1 tsp yellow mustard5 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grate the onion and carrot — grated, not chopped, so they melt into the loaf and keep it moist rather than sitting in it as lumps.
Mix everything except the glaze with your hands until just combined. Overworking it makes the loaf dense and springy.
Shape into a loaf on a lined tray rather than pressing it into a tin — a free-standing loaf browns on all sides and the fat drains away instead of pooling.
Mix the ketchup and mustard, brush half over, and bake 45 minutes. Brush on the rest and bake 15 more, until it reads 71°C (160°F). Rest 10 minutes before slicing.

Oats instead of breadcrumbs?

They hold more liquid, so the loaf stays moist, and they bring fibre that breadcrumbs don't. You can't taste them. This is the single change that moves meatloaf's score the most.

Alternative

Turkey meatloafthe lean turkey rebuild61

Why this score

solidly filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

35% of kcal

68% water

11 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

Nothing here converges the way engineered food does — no sugar, no savoury and no alcohol penalty.

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 1893 kcal goes into the pot, 1324 g of ingredients comes out as ~1150 g of food → 165 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 165
Protein: (35%); 14 g
Fat: (40%); 7 g
Carbohydrates: (25%); 10 g
of which sugar: 3 g
Fiber: 2 g
Sodium: 355 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More meals

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.